We selected the main news of the week about Brexit and what the immigration system should look like after the UK leaves the European Union. See also what has been said about the Home Office in recent days.

Immigration experts say the innovator visa, launched in March for foreign founders who have started or plan to launch “innovative, viable and scalable” businesses, is failing. The number of visas issued is barely in double digits, according to legal sources. From The Times.

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Whether you’re a Remainer or a Leaver, these are disruptive times, and the media is covering every single aspect of it. It’s enough to drive people to breaking point. As the October 31 deadline approaches and uncertainty about what exactly will happen and what that means for every one of us grows, every utterance and action is being dissected in newspapers and on 24-hour rolling news channels. And more and more of us are saying it’s affecting our mental health. From Wired.

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VFX, animation and post-production employees from the European Union are being urged to apply for settled status before the UK introduces a new visa system for working in the country. From IBC.

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The European Commission has ensured Britons will have visa-free travel for short trips to Europe, but business travelers will not be covered by the move if they are doing more than attending meetings, networking events or conferences. From Express.

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Children of British Isis members stranded in Syria will not be allowed to return to the UK, the government has reportedly decided. At least 30 British children are currently being held with their mothers in camps in northern Syria, after being detained as they fled the crumbling Isis caliphate. From Independent.

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Soaring immigration fees have led to accusations of profiteering against the Home Office, which made £500 million last year. Critics of the system say the fees indicated that the Home Office’s hostile environment policy, which it disowned after the Windrush scandal, is still in effect and is trapping families in poverty as they struggle to satisfy the fees. From Scottish Legal.

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Philip Hammond has said MPs can prevent Boris Johnson taking the UK out of the EU without a deal on 31 October, calling no deal a “betrayal of the referendum” and suggesting advisers in Downing Street have no intention of negotiating a new deal. From The Guardian.

Boris Johnson declares ‘new Brexit approach’ as he sets out no-deal plans. The new PM tells MPs that failing to leave the EU on 31 October will cause a “catastrophic loss of confidence” among the public. From Sky News.

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After getting almost twice as many votes as his opponent, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, in the leadership contest, Mr Johnson will walk into Downing Street on one of the hottest days of the year and confronting the hottest issue in UK politics for years – the October 31 deadline for Brexit. From Relocate Magazine.

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Britain is using simple tax errors as a reason to deport migrants. Filling out tax returns can be complicated, and it’s easy to make a mistake. But for 33-year-old Nisha Mohite, one simple mistake resulted in her losing her job, her home, and her right to remain in the UK. And she’s not alone. At least 1,000 migrants—including doctors, engineers, and scientists—are being denied settled status for simple mistakes such as errors in tax returns, according to the support group Highly Skilled Migrants. From Quartz.

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Right to rent checks for EU after Brexit. Landlords and letting agents should continue to conduct right to rent checks on EU, EEA and Swiss citizens in the same way as now, usually by checking and making a copy of an EEA national’s passport or identity card, until 1 January 2021. From Gov.UK.

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Priti Patel’s appointment as home secretary has been met with an outpouring of “extreme concern” over her hard-right record on key issues covered by her new brief. Patel – who was forced to resign from government two years ago after it emerged that she had held secret, unofficial meetings with Israeli ministers, businesspeople and a senior lobbyist – will be responsible for immigration, crime and policing, counter-terrorism and drugs policy. From The Guardian.

Photo: Toby Melville – WPA Pool/Getty Images Europe

MPs have voted to block the next Prime Minister suspending parliament to force through a ‘no-deal’ Brexit. Leadership contenders Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt have both said they are prepared to crash out of the EU on October 31 with or without a deal. But leaving without a divorce settlement has never had the support of the majority of MPs. From Metro.

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As Brexit looms, ever more voices are calling for Britain to remain open to foreign entrepreneurs and founders. The latest voice in this is the free-market think-tank The Entrepreneurs Network, which has released a report arguing that foreign founders are one of the main driving forces of British innovation. The message of the report is crystal clear: British policy after Brexit should work to make the country as attractive to foreign entrepreneurs as possible. From Forbes.

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EU citizens who have been in the UK for fewer than five years and apply to remain in the UK after Brexit face further uncertainty because of a flaw in the Home Office phone app, it has emerged. A 31-year-old Swedish engineer who has applied to stay in Britain after Brexit discovered the defect in the app when he tried to convert his pre-settled status to settled status last week. From The Guardian.

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Eight people have been arrested on suspicion of immigration offences after a group was found hiding in the back of a lorry. The refrigerated fruit lorry was stopped by police at Eye Green services near Peterborough at about 08:30 BST after reports of noises from inside. A child, also inside the vehicle, was not arrested but was taken to an immigration centre. From BBC.

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